Border Patrol Wrongly Arrested Hundreds

An incentive program may have contributed to the wrongful arrest of hundreds in New York state according to a new study.

Between 2006 and 2010, close to 300 immigrants with legal status were arrested by Rochester-based Border Patrol agents then released, according to the study.

The rewards program in the Buffalo office of the Border Patrol, which oversees Rochester enforcement, was “ramped up from a few thousand dollars in 2003 to nearly $200,000 in 2011,” states the study, which NYU did in conjunction with the immigrant rights group, Families for Freedom.